Month: December 2008

Changes are taking place in our family and they are exciting changes!!!

Last week, John David and I purchased our first home, a 3 bedroom, 2 bath 1500 square foot home with a basement and an amazing kitchen.

We have spent the last week painting. We painted every room in the house, the ceilings in the master, and are working on getting all the trim painted. Today we had our carpets cleaned and they look amazing! We are planning on moving in officially on Saturday. I will be posting more pictures of the house and the improvements we have made once we get settled in our new home!

The other news, John David left Farm Credit today. He will be starting a job as the Media Director at our church on January 1! We are so excited because God has given John David the desire of his heart, to use media to His glory. We are excited about our future with our wonderful church family.

Since John David is without work for 2 weeks, we have a Christmas break again this year. Isn’t that a positive way to look at 2 weeks without an income? We have plenty work to do and we will enjoy spending some quality time together over the holidays. We know that God will take care of us these next 2 weeks, all our bills will be paid and the freezer is fully stocked!!

We recently had John David’s truck repaired, the clutch went out and to fix it, the shop had to lift out his transmission which equaled to a bill over $350.

We can still praise God in this situation; this is the first time in 2 1/2 years of marriage that we have had to put one of our vehicles in the shop (and we drive older vehicles).

We also had the money available to cover it; when I started working in October, I started taking out a percentage of my earnings for a car savings account because our vehicles are getting older and our monthly budget cannot handle unexpected car repairs. The money in the car savings fund covered most of the bill and the remaining balance we were able to cover from our checking account. God is so good and faithful and blesses us so much!

I have been thinking the past few days about the small things in life that are too often overlooked. For me, many of these small things are often silly, nothing profound at all, but they bring great joy into my life.

The small things I enjoy:

*John David’s cold feet at night
*A hug from my husband when walks in the door from work
*Folding our laundry
*Baking cookies
*Vanilla Dr. Pepper at Sonic with John David
*Grape Juice
*A good book
*Soft blankets
*Fleece sheets
*Flannel pjs
*Talking to my sister
*Homemade pizza*Half anniversaries & birthdays!
*Bargain shopping
*Blogging
*Listening to Christian music and singing at the top of my lungs with John David (and neither of us can sing!)
*Looking at pictures
*Warm socks
*Organizing
*Kid Cereal
*Recycling
*Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
*Grocery Shopping
*Long car ride with John David

I could go on and on but those are some of the small things, that I enjoy and that made my life so wonderful!

Making pinto beans is easy. It is more cost effective than store bought pintos and they are simple to make. I followed directions from the blog, A Year of Crockpotting, and they turned out great! Last night, we enjoyed a nice bowl of Vinegar and Pintos with corn muffins.

The beginning: beans, water, salt, pepper, and salt cured ham

After 8 hours of cooking on high

3 containers to go in the freezer, 1 small container to go in the fridge for Mexican Casserole, and 1 bowl for tonight’s supper.

If you’re trying to save money in the kitchen, try making pinto beans!